Haunting Ground
Haunting Ground, known in Japan as Demento (デメント), is a PlayStation 2 exclusive survival horror game and a spin-off of the Clock Tower series. It was developed and published by Capcom on April 21, 2005 (Japan), April 25, 2005 (North America) and May 10, 2005 (Europe). It was available as a "PlayStation 2 Classic" on the PlayStation Network for PlayStation 3, but it was removed for unknown reasons. It is a spin-off to the Clock Tower franchise, and bears many similarities between the series such as stalkers, a Panic Mode system, hiding places, and multiple endings. Although unconfirmed, it has been said that Haunting Ground was originally intended to be Clock Tower 4. Haunting Ground had poor sales due to little marketing, as well as the fact that Resident Evil 4 had been released around the same time. Copies of the game are usually rare and expensive. The game received mixed reviews and holds a 67 on Metacritic. http://www.metacritic.com/game/playstation-2/haunting-ground Despite this, the game has received a strong cult following. Gameplay Fiona Belli, the player-character, must be guided through Belli Castle, its grounds and outbuildings until she can find a way to escape. Along the way, players must solve puzzles, unlock doors and evade, hide or attempt to fight back against the castle's inhabitants. Fiona is accompanied by Hewie, a white German Shepherd dog. The two must work as a team to solve certain puzzles and outwit their pursuers. During the game, the castle's inhabitants chase and attack Fiona, and if evaded long enough will cease for a set interval. While it is possible to retaliate with kicks, Hewie's bites, or alchemically created weapons, the game's focus is on the player evading enemies long enough to find a hiding spot. The castle's staff chase Fiona individually until defeated in a boss battle, after which a different enemy will pursue Fiona. Two enemies exist in addition to the castle's keepers, neither are dangerous to Fiona but can alert Fiona's pursuers to her location and cause panic. The first are small floating orbs of blue light known as Luminessants, which follow Fiona and emit a loud noise if they come into contact with her. The other enemy type are fetus-like disfigured homunculi, who attach themselves to Fiona's legs while letting out a piercing yell. Hewie joins Fiona early in the game, following different player-issued commands to perform actions like barking or growling when he detects a trap or threat. He can be commanded to stay, follow, attack, fetch and to shake hands. In order to maintain a good relationship with her new companion, Fiona must issue commands to Hewie, praising or scolding him depending on whether or not he obeys. Praising or healing him when he becomes injured also maintains his interest. Hewie will ignore Fiona's commands and wander off if not given enough attention, and if he is repeatedly mistreated he may even attack her. Hewie can be knocked unconscious from sustaining too many injuries but can be revived, however, in Hard Mode, he is slain after receiving the same level of injuries, causing the game to end. When faced with certain scripted events or prolonged enemy attacks and chases, Fiona becomes fearful. If allowed to remain fearful for too long she will enter panic mode and run. Panic mode causes blurriness of the screen, saturation of the surroundings and a freeze-frame effect, and the control pad vibrates in time with Fiona's heartbeat. The player is unable to stop Fiona running and must try to prevent her from running into walls and objects. Running into scenery causes her to collapse and crawl away; at this point further damage will kill her. Hewie can only be called for help during panic mode, encouraging him to attack any pursuer and prevent Fiona from being killed. If enemies are avoided long enough panic mode ends. Plot Fiona Belli has somehow found herself in a strange castle, known as Belli Castle. She has just been involved in a car accident with her parents, but her memories of this accident are vague. When she awakens, she finds herself in some sort of large butcher's room. Noting that the cage that keeps her prisoner was left unlocked, she steps out but is startled by a large, fierce animal snarling and then running past her. She quickly begins searching for some answers and a way out of the castle. Along the way, she befriends the animal that initially frightened her, who is a white German Shepherd named Hewie, and who turns out to be a valuable ally. As Fiona's predicament gets more and more disturbing, she learns that she is the carrier of the Azoth, which is what the castle's residents are after. The first enemy is Debilitas, a large, mentally disabled man. Debilitas chases Fiona around the castle and is stopped by Riccardo. Fiona meets Riccardo and Daniella and finds letters and memos given to her by a man named Lorenzo who wants her to escape the castle. Fiona and Hewie are chased by Debilitas to the chapel. The way in which the player ultimately eliminates Debilitas influences the outcome of the endings. Soon after Fiona has rid herself of Debilitas, her new enemy, Daniella, is reintroduced to the game after her short appearance in the game's early scenes. Daniella becomes jealous that Fiona can smell, taste, touch or "experience pleasure". This foreshadows her later intimation, immediately before her boss battle, that she cannot engage in sexual intercourse. Daniella wields a large shard of broken glass (unless the player approaches Daniella while she is kneeling near a fire place which then replaces the glass with a hot poker; this deals twice as much damage). After Fiona kills Daniella by impaling her with a large shard of broken glass from the ceiling, the third villain is reintroduced, Riccardo, who wields a flintlock pistol. For a majority of the game Riccardo keeps his face hidden under a hood. Riccardo reveals his face and his plot to Fiona after cornering her in the woods. He has the same face as Fiona's father, Ugo, and reveals that they are clones and that he is now the original. Riccardo murdered Ugo after attempting to kill him in the car crash as revenge for leaving the castle and marrying Ayla, Fiona's mother. He plans to use Fiona (by means of her womb and use of her Azoth) to help him be reborn so that he may live forever. Hewie rescues Fiona (unless the player's bond with Hewie is weak and results in one of the game's four endings) and assists in their escape from the tower in which Riccardo keeps Fiona imprisoned. The final boss of the game is Lorenzo, who menaces Fiona in several different forms. The player first meets Lorenzo as an old, crippled man. He tells Fiona how Riccardo was always the problem child, and that he created both Riccardo and Ugo in attempts to find a body with Azoth he could use. Ugo had the Azoth but left the castle to marry Ayla. Now that he knows Fiona is finally his, he can take the Azoth she inherited from Ugo. He rids himself of his wheelchair and crawls on the floor in order to chase Fiona. After crushing the elder Lorenzo in a machine, Fiona encounters a resurrected, youthful Lorenzo; the Azoth (that he acquired from Riccardo's body after his fall from the water tower, a scene you can witness in hard mode) allows him mastery over his own aging process, as well as the ability to teleport. Fiona eventually, with the help of Hewie, causes Lorenzo to fall into a pit of lava. Immediately after defeating young Lorenzo, the castle begins to shake and collapse, and Lorenzo returns a final time as a flaming skeletal version of his former self. He chases Fiona, but finally dies as she and Hewie escape the castle. Endings * (A) "Fortes Fortuna Juvat" - Fiona struggles to get the key into the lock. Hewie calms her fears and she manages to unlock the door. However, Hewie begins barking which catches Fiona's attention. From the double doors, Debilitas comes out with hedge clippers. In a tense and awkward moment, Fiona and Debilitas stare at each other. Debilitas simply bows to Fiona. With that, she and Hewie walk into the darkness of the forest. Debilitas looks at the overgrown trees in the garden and begins clipping them as he hums to himself. To get this ending, the player must defeat Debilitas using the chandelier. This does not kill Debilitas, but rather causes him to retreat and thus no longer pose a threat for Fiona during the remainder of the game. * (B) "Ignis Aurum Probat" - similar to Ending A, except that Debilitas does not appear. As Fiona is opening the gate out to the forest, she stares at the castle for a few moments, before turning and following Hewie into the forest. To get this ending, the player must have Fiona kill Debilitas. * © "Dona Nobis Pacem" - similar to Ending A, except there is no Debilitas and there is a special scene at the end. Lorenzo calls out to Fiona not to go and falls down the stairs, loathing the fact that she has left. To get this ending, the game must be completed once. Debilitas must be defeated with the chandelier. Then, Fiona must go visit Debilitas in his hut, where he will give her a key to one of the locked bathroom stalls, which reveals a hidden cellar. In that cellar, Fiona finds the key to the castle's main gate. * (D) "Tu Fui, Ego Eris" - Fiona wakes up in a glass box where Riccardo taunts her and says she belongs to him. She screams in her frustration. The scene cuts to her castle bedroom, where Riccardo enters the room and tenderly strokes Fiona's head and her bulging stomach, as she is now heavily pregnant. As he walks away, she wakes, gives a faint smile, and issues a hollow laugh. To obtain this ending, Fiona must have a weak relationship with Hewie. Hewie does not recover from Riccardo's gun attack in the Chaos Forest level, and hence does not rescue Fiona, thus ending the game. This ending is not canon, as it is made clear throughout the game that Fiona cares about Hewie. Plot similarities with Clock Tower 3 Haunting Ground bears some plot similarities with Clock Tower 3. The protagonists are both teenage girls (Fiona, Alyssa) who become orphaned during the game. The main antagonist is the protagonist's grandfather (Lorenzo, Dick), who wants to capture her in order to live for all eternity with them -- however, in order to do so, he must first take something from inside of her body (Azoth, Rooder Heart). Initially, the protagonist thinks of him as a good person, but she discovers that it is only a front. The protagonist refuses the opportunity to live with him forever and defeats him in the end. Throughout the game, the female protagonist is aided by a male companion (Hewie, Dennis); in one part of the game, he is captured by the enemy and is needed to be rescued by her. Similarities with other Clock Tower games * Both the main characters of Clock Tower: The First Fear and Haunting Ground free an animal (Jennifer can free a crow, Fiona frees Hewie). This animal later comes back to help the character fend off one of their stalkers: the crows kill Mary by leading her off a ledge, Hewie saves Fiona from Debilitas, and later, Riccardo. * The main characters are both orphaned, female teenagers. * The stamina system is quite similar: in Clock Tower: The First Fear and Haunting Ground, running and fighting off enemies decreases stamina, but crouching slowly recovers it. * Lavender, a calming herb in this game, is carried over from Clock Tower 3, where Alyssa could use Lavender Water to calm herself down from getting panic. * The save points in Haunting Ground are clocks, a possible homage to Clock Tower. * The game shares many sound effects with Clock Tower 3, such as footsteps and menu options. * In ending A, Debilitas is seen clutching a large pair of garden shears, a possible homage to Scissorman and the Scissor Twins (Scissorman Ralph and Scissorwoman Jemima). * In Haunting Ground, Clock Tower: The First Fear as well as in Clock Tower 3, at least one hiding spot can be given away by minor enemies of the protagonist; in Haunting Ground, Luminessants can give away Fiona's hiding spot. In The First Fear, the parrot in the bedroom will tell Scissorman if Jennifer is hiding beneath the bed. In Clock Tower 3, if the purple butterflies are present in the room where Alyssa is hiding, they can give away her hiding spot and maximize her panic. * In both Haunting Ground and Clock Tower: The First Fear, the protagonists can be attacked by bugs if they make a mistake in a puzzle; if Fiona examines the Distillery equipment, Fiona will be ravaged and killed by cockroaches. In The First Fear, Jennifer will be attacked by a swarm of flies and cockroaches if she examines the meat locker without the insecticide. * The basic idea of "stalker chases you -> you run away -> hide and hope they don't find you" is one of the biggest gameplay mechanics of all the Clock Tower games, and Haunting Ground. Trivia * The ending "Tu Fui, Ego Eris" shares the same name with a line spoken by Heather after reading a story document in the otherworld, in Silent Hill 3. * The controls for Hewie are similar to the commands (and possibly a modified engine) of the Resident Evil: Outbreak series. For example, down is "come here/come on!", up is "go!", right is "good boy/thank you" and R3 is "stay/wait!". * Haunting Ground has many similarities with another PlayStation 2 exclusive game, called Rule of Rose. Both protagonists are English female blond orphans in their late teens. The protagonists rescue a dog that will help them during the rest of the game, which assists them by finding hidden objects, barking at enemies and also attacking the enemies. * The exact setting of the game is unknown, but because of names like "Fiona", "Riccardo", "Lorenzo" and "Belli", it's possible to been located in Italy, also known for the fluent Latin language roots during the plot. Unconfirmed voices also talk about "Provence", a French region on the Alps confining with Italy. It is also possible that it is set in England, due to the English accents. 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